But Every Map Begins Blank
by Tozette
Summary: At age ten, an unexpected encounter changes Ino's perspective (and sets her on the path to growing up way more badass).
1. Chapter 1

Ten year old Yamanaka Ino stared at her 'teacher'.

"Did my father _really_ ask you to do this?" she asked dubiously, eyeing him. Ebisu-sensei was a ninja who excelled in ninjutsu and basic techniques, but he was also standoffish and weird and hideously boring.

He adjusted his glasses with one finger.

"Yamanaka Ino," he said, "Your father is concerned that you are not taking your shinobi training seriously. He has requested that I give you additional tuition to the Academy curriculum to make up for your lack of focus and direction."

Ino scoffed. "I _am_ focused."

"On Uchiha Sasuke-kun, ne?" Ebisu asked slyly.

"So?" she challenged. "There are plenty of good ninja who fall in love!"

Ebisu's glasses glinted ominously. "That's true," he agreed. "But good ninja don't fall in love with ninja who don't take their training seriously."

"Ehh?" Ino's voice soared. "Sasuke-kun _is_ a good ninja! He's at the top of the class!"

Ebisu leaned down toward her, peering over his sunglasses for a moment. "But _you're_ not, Ino-kun," he pointed out. "Your father tells me you're more interested in love and flirtation than training," he said severely.

Her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I am too good." she growled.

"You are not as good as you could be. Do not interrupt! I am the elite teacher, Ebisu. And I am never wrong," he explained to her with full, patronising confidence. "You are a sub-par student."

Ino's temper went from a simmer to a boil. "Just because Sakura's better at written tests doesn't mean I'm not better than her at everything else! If you took that away, I'd be the best kunoichi in the class! I don't need extra training from a weirdo like you!"

"Oh?" Ebisu asked. "You're not the first person to have said that," he admitted. "So I'll tell you what I told them - if you can get away from me, I'll tell your father you don't need extra training."

Ino considered this for a second.

She set her jaw. "Fine," she agreed shortly.

His glasses flashed in the light, and his lips curled up around the edges.

Ino launched herself at him. "Kawirimi no jutsu!" She switched with a flower pot at the last second, sending it hurtling toward his face.

She didn't look back to see if it had hit him. Instead she raced ahead, dashing through the streets of Konohagakure at top speed.

"Oh?" Ebisu examined the remains of the flower pot on the unpaved street. Shattered ceramic and dry dirt scattered around his feet, but none of it was on his clothing. Deceitful girl. "To be expected of a Yamanaka," he mused, adjusting his glasses.

Well, that was probably enough of a head start.

Ebisu vanished.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Ino was frustrated, breathing heavily, and looking over her shoulder because Ebisu was _gaining on her_, dammit.

She couldn't see him for the moment but he seemed to excel at showing up just when she thought she was safe!

It was largely because she wasn't looking where she was going that Ino ploughed into a person on the street.

"Oof! Sorry," she said, stumbling sideways. A strong hand reached out to grab her shoulder. It steadied her, but it also prevented her from going anywhere.

The person she'd smacked into had dark eyes and careless hair, and everybody was shooting her not-that-surreptitious glances because her entire outfit was basically made of fishnet. She seemed totally immune to embarrassment. There was a chewed-up stick between her teeth.

"What the hell? What're you racing through the streets like an idiot for?"

"She is fleeing from her training and her duty as a prospective kunoichi of Konoha," said the dreaded voice of Ebisu from somewhere over Ino's shoulder.

She sagged. Caught. Again.

"Training?" asked the woman she'd run into. She hadn't let go of Ino's shoulder. Slowly, she taped her lip. "Is that so?" she asked with an edged smile.

"He said I wouldn't have to train with him if I could get away," Ino said, glowering over at Ebisu. He'd made it sound like she was just irresponsibly trying to avoid him!

Which was kind of true, but...

She shook her head. It was different!

"Boooring," drawled the woman.

Ebisu stiffened perceptibly. He adjusted his glasses with one finger. "Be that as it may, the 'boring' basics are very important for developing into a well-rounded shinobi. You yourself know the damage that can be done when you try to take shortcuts to power," he said in a very disapproving tone of voice.

There was a flash of crippling dangerous intent, and the hand on Ino's shoulder tightened enough to bruise.

Then it was gone - but not before Ebisu tensed and shifted.

Ino swallowed nervously.

The woman smiled. "Maa," she said in a sweet voice, "Well, when I saw this sweet preteen girl running away from you I just had to check, you know? You have that effect on girls you're _not_ meant to be training." She winked one of her eyes down at Ino, who did not quite suppress a giggle.

"I will not stand here and be insulted by you, Mitarashi-san." Ebisu sniffed.

"Then move somewhere else and I'll insult you there," she said without missing a beat. "Now, the deal was... what? The girl gets away from you and she doesn't have to put up with your company?"

Ebisu's sunglasses flashed in the sun. "Your interference will not constitute an assessment of her shinobi skills."

"Sure it will," said the woman breezily. "Konoha-nin are all about teamwork."

Ino found herself hauled up and slung across one strong shoulder, and then suddenly the ground was disappearing below her as the woman leapt from the street to the rooftops with a whoop.

"_Mitarashi Anko_!" Ebisu's voice snapped somewhere down below.

The woman cackled.

* * *

"Where are we?" Ino asked, peering around. She was balancing precariously on the branch of an enormous tree, and they were surrounded by other enormous trees. The atmosphere was dank and heavy, and the insects were huge. Really huge.

She definitely didn't like it.

"Mmm?" the woman skewered a mosquito to the tree they were standing on. Its heavy black body was the size of a cherry, and it leaked stolen blood where she pierced it. "This is one of the training grounds," she said cheerfully. "That boring bastard won't find us here."

The woman flopped down and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. She produced a package of mochi from apparently nowhere and shoved one of the treats into her mouth.

"Aa," said Ino, cautiously dropping down to sit cross-legged. The tree branch was so broad she didn't have to worry about falling off at all. On another branch far below, she could see a snake bigger than she was flopped bonelessly in the dappled light from above.

"Not that I'm saying it's a bad idea," said the kunoichi, "but why were you trying to get out of training with Ebisu, anyway? He's a boring stick-in-the-mud but he is a good teacher."

Ino scowled. "I'm one of the best girls in the Academy," she said in a growl "I don't need extra training from some weirdo!"

"Saa..." Anko drawled, gazing up at the canopy. "Is that so? Why did Inoichi ask him, then?"

"Ebisu-san said it was because I 'lack focus and direction'," she said bitterly, crossing her arms across her chest.

Anko's dark eyes settled on her. "And what else?"

Ino frowned. "And he said Sasuke-kun wouldn't fall in love with a ninja who doesn't take her training seriously."

"'Sasuke-kun'?" Anko repeated, frowning for a second. "Ah, the Uchiha kid? I've heard people talking about him sometimes..."

Ino nodded. She was pleased that this strange lady seemed to know about the boy of her dreams. "He's the best! He's the best in the class at _everything_," she said proudly.

"Is he?" the woman looked a bit faraway for a second. "Hey, kid," she said after a second, "has he got his bloodline limit yet?"

Ino knew what a bloodline limit was, of course. She even knew that the Uchiha Clan had been the bloodline that carried the Sharingan - she'd been raised by ninja in the intelligence division, for goodness' sake. She frowned for a few seconds, thinking hard. Sasuke-watching was kind of a hobby of hers - like bird watching for some people, she supposed - and she couldn't think of an occasion when she'd seen those bright red eyes in his face.

"I don't think so," she said cautiously. "But maybe he doesn't use it."

Anko nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Well, it's not always good to awaken a rare bloodline limit too young," she said cryptically.

Ino frowned. Why would that be? If it was anything like the Yamanaka jutsu, he would have been in training since he was very young...

After a second, Anko leaned over and ruffled Ino's hair. "And what do you mean 'he's the best in the class at everything'?" she demanded.

"Well," she said blankly, "he just is. He's the best at everything. He's so cool," she added happily.

Anko laughed loudly enough that birds scattered somewhere above their heads.

"And you think it's okay for him to be better than you at everything?"

"Well... He's _Sasuke-kun_," Ino said, brow furrowing.

"So?"

"So..." Ino trailed off. She rubbed her forehead with one hand. "It's okay for the boy you like to be better than you, isn't it?"

"Idiot," Anko heaved a sigh. Ino scowled, but didn't interrupt her just yet. "Let's put it this way: don't you want _him_ running around after you sighing about how cool _you_ are?"

Ino's blue eyes widened. Anko smirked.

"Yes," she said. "But... is that possible? I mean, I'm a girl, I'm never going to be as strong as the boys will be," she pointed out.

Anko's eyebrows rose. "Kid, Senjuu Tsunade's a woman. You think she's not physically stronger than any man alive right now? Half of ANBU is women. I'm a woman! I don't know what gave you the impression you'd never be as strong as a male ninja, but I can promise you I've personally kicked plenty of manly arse," she declared. "And it's not all about brute strength, either."

Ino nodded slowly. Anko was basically saying that Sasuke-kun would like her better if Ino worked harder to be a good ninja. She pumped one fist. "All right! I'll become an awesome kunoichi and Sasuke-kun will fall in love with me!"

Anko rubbed her forehead like she had a headache. "Hai, hai," she sighed. "It's all about Sasuke-kun, huh?"

Ino gave her a questioning look. "Yes?"

"I guess that'll have to do for now," she shrugged.

Anko got up and dusted herself off. Hesitantly, Ino did too. "Well then, obviously," she said then, leaning in and poking Ino's nose, "you _do_ need extra training, Ino-chan."

Ino blinked.

And then Anko was gone.

And in her place was a knife and a compass.

Ino looked around at the huge, sprawling, dangerous forest. She had no idea where she was. Or, in fact, where the _village_ was.

"EEEH?"

* * *

**Author's note:** At the moment this is a one-shot. I have listed it as complete because I don't know if it should be continued.

I feel like it _could_ be expanded to a silly story in which Ino takes on the Naruto world with Anko's input (and Anko's _excellent/terrible_ advice), but I'm not sure if that's a thing I want to do. I guess if there're readers who think that sounds like a lot of fun I could do that, but I'm kind of on the fence about it. So if that's a thing you decide you want, you should definitely drop me a line and, uh... say something inspiring? :)

(Of course _The Natural Habitat Of Haruno Sakura_ is still being updated, as is _Hit The Ground Running_ and also a side-project that I'm working on, which will doubtlessly pop up on ffnet eventually. Since I inevitably end up writing what I feel like when I feel like it (fanfiction being for _fun_, obviously, instead of, like, my job), writing other stories does not impact how quickly I can update one of my current ones.)


	2. Chapter 2

Still on the fence about continuing this one, but I felt like writing Ino stumbling around the forest getting into trouble. : )

* * *

Ino stared at the forest around her for a few long moments. She couldn't believe that insane kunoichi had left her here! For as far as she could see and hear, there was only sprawling dark forest.

How _dare_ she? Ino was tired and hungry from being chased by Stupid Glasses Ebisu all day, and she wanted to be back home. An angry red crept up her face and she made a noise like a kettle boiling over.

Around her, the buzzing of insects intensified. A heavy mosquito landed on her arm. It was black and shiny, swollen from gorging itself on other creatures.

"Eeek!" Ino smacked it with her hand, hard. It fell from her arm to the broad tree limb she was perched on. Its whine continued unabated.

Ino stomped on it vindictively.

It took three angry stomps before the insect made a satisfying splatty crunch.

"There," she said with some satisfaction and a lot of ire.

There was another mosquito whine coming steadily closer. Actually it sounded like it was maybe more than one.

She froze uncertainly for a moment. Mosquitoes weren't usually that dangerous, but ones that big could probably take a fair amount of blood if they were in a big group.

Also they were _gross_.

Ino scowled. The knife and the compass sat in front of her on the tree limb, glinting innocently. She wanted to stomp off resentfully and leave them there, because she hated Mitarashi Anko and wanted nothing to do with her, not even this.

She resentfully picked them up. She didn't have any kunai on her, and even if the knife wasn't a proper weapon - single-bladed, and only about as long as Ino's young hand - it would be more useful than nothing.

The mosquitoes were whining closer. Ino peered down through the branches and then gently and carefully slithered her way down to the next branch.

The heavy snake basking there flicked its tongue at her lazily but made no move from its patch of sunlight. It reminded her a little of Shikamaru.

Ino scrambled cautiously from branch to branch. In theory, she knew that ninja could use their chakra to keep themselves safe up in the trees that were so common in Konoha, but it wasn't a skill she'd learned yet. Ino's chakra control was only as good as it had to be to satisfy her father that she'd be able to learn her clan's techniques in good time - which was better than the average, certainly, but nowhere near as good as some of the other people in her class.

Her father was always harping on about training more so she had better control. She usually tuned him out, but right this second, hopping precariously from tree limb to tree limb, she kind of wished she'd listened.

If she had, she might also be good enough at chakra sensing to find the nearest human. As it was, all her burgeoning chakra senses told her was that there was (probably) no human with ninja-level chakra in the immediate vicinity.

That wasn't very helpful.

The whining of mosquitoes became distant as she moved farther away from where they converged. Hopefully they'd bother that snake, or some other poor creature, and leave her alone.

Right. Now she just had to figure out where she was and find her way out and back to the village proper.

If she wanted to get the lay of the land, Ino was going to have to find a very high vantage to view the area from.

She looked up.

And... up.

The trees were enormous. Climbing all that way would be hard, sweaty work. She'd get scratched, she'd get tired, she - she didn't _want_ to. Ino took a shuddering, heaving breath and tried to stave off the frustrated tears gathering behind her eyes.

Why should she have to climb these stupid trees? Why would that stupid woman leave her here?

She was all alone, anyway. Who would care if she cried? A few birds were startled by her croaks and tears and hard breaths, but otherwise they went unnoticed and unremarked.

It took Ino almost fifteen minutes to calm herself down from her storm of self-indulgent weeping, and then she felt hollowed out and worn. She looked back up the tree trunk, ascending forever up into the canopy and clouds.

Well, fine.

She had to start to finish.

Grimly, Ino got to her feet and began to climb the huge tree.

She took several breaks, and very nearly gave up several times - but then, there was nobody who knew where she was (except for that stupid kunoichi), and nobody to pull her out before well after nightfall when her father would miss her.

Giving up wouldn't help anything, wouldn't get her out of the forest, so she just... didn't.

She climbed.

The top of her tree was not as tall as some of the ones around it, and the branches got thinner the further up she climbed. Getting from the topmost reaches of her own tree to the one next to it was an exercise in heart-pounding terror. After no more than an hour, Ino grew to be wary of every creak of wood underfoot, and the soft snap of a twig made her blood run fast with adrenalin.

At last she could see out over the canopy for some distance.

Mostly she could see more trees.

Her heart sank into her stomach.

Where was she?

Ino sat, perched high up in her tree, and thought. The kunoichi - Mitarashi Anko - was from Konoha. Ebisu had recognised her, and Ino was sure it hadn't been a genjutsu. At any rate, nobody outside of Konoha should want anything of hers. The Yamanaka clan had their own reputation, but Ino wasn't heir to a clan with a powerful bloodline limit like Hinata was, or as politically important as the Hokage's tiny grandson.

It seemed unlikely that somebody would have put her out here as a hostage. That was comforting.

Then, if Mitarashi Anko was from Konoha, she wouldn't have taken her too far. And she'd said they were in a training field, so the chances of her still being within easy walking distance from the village were pretty good. Furthermore, as far as Ino could tell she hadn't used anything more exotic than the Body Flicker Technique, which she'd seen used before.

But even knowing that, Ino didn't know what the technique's absolute range was.

Thinking wasn't really getting her any closer to answers. She could have been _anywhere_.

Ino rubbed her hands through her hair. A twig fell from her head. Great. Just great. Her hair was sweaty and ruined, too.

She'd just begun growing it longer because Sasuke was reputed to prefer women with long hair. When she'd mentioned this to her father, Inoichi had looked to the heavens briefly for guidance.

Presumably he'd received none.

She didn't see what was so wrong with long hair, anyway. _He_ had long hair. And so did a lot of really good ninja.

"Ugh," she said in disgust. She didn't have time to be thinking about this right now anyway.

Then she got to her feet. Carefully - so carefully, because she could slip with any step, and she didn't have chakra tricks to hold her - she edged her way around so she could see a greater range of the forest.

In the distance she could see the edge of Senjuu Hashirama's severe face glowering out of the mountainside.

Relief turned Ino's legs to jelly. She wasn't that far from home, after all.

It was hard to judge the distance, but she thought... less than ten kilometers, surely. That was, what, maybe two hours walking for her short legs. She could do that.

She didn't _want_ to do that, but she was definitely capable of it. And if nothing else, today had already been an object lesson in completing necessary but unpleasant tasks.

Okay. She checked Mitarashi's compass for the correct direction. Konoha was almost exactly east.

Now Ino knew where she was going. She just had to get down.

* * *

Getting down was somehow less fun than climbing up, even though it used much less upper body strength.

Ino managed to put her foot in a nest of spiders on her way down. It wouldn't usually have been such a big deal - she'd hardly mourn a few squished spiders! - but these spiders were not squished.

They were too big to be seriously harmed by the tread of a ten year old.

Angered? Yes. Harmed? No.

The biggest of them got three hairy legs onto her shoe and tried to scuttle up her bare leg. She made a noise somewhere between a whimper and a scream.

Ino flung her foot out wide and shook it wildly until the spider slipped away. It was so large she could hear its descent through the leaves.

She breathed a huge shaking breath. There were other spiders, but they weren't nearly so close. Maybe if she... she looked down.

There was a broad tree branch almost - almost - exactly under her. It was probably a three metre drop, which was daunting in itself, but it would be a lot worse if she missed the landing

She looked back at the other spiders.

They made a strange, hideous clicking noise and crawled closer and Ino very nearly lost her grip on the tree. She could _see_ their fangs! Spiders should never be big enough to see their dripping fangs from so far.

A droplet of what Ino could only assume was some terrible poison fell from the spider's fangs and trailed down the tree bark.

It left a hissing scorch mark as it went.

That decided her: she'd take her chances with the drop.

Ino let go.

She didn't manage to quite quell a little yelp as she dropped through the air. Her feet hit the bark of the branch below and she bent her knees, automatically adjusting to absorb the shock that ran up her legs.

Her footing was awkward, and, just as she'd breathed a sigh of relief, she slipped.

Her shriek echoed through the forest and cut off harshly when she smacked into another branch below.

Ino struggled to breathe for a few moments. Her eyes teared up.

Finally, she sat up on the branch and panted, bracing her elbows against her knees and dropping her head. Her back hurt from smacking into the tree. Her hands hurt from climbing. Her stomach muscles were shaking and whimpering from overuse.

About the only thing that didn't hurt were the big muscles in her legs, for which she could thank the conditioning all academy students were put through. As much as she hated jogging endless laps and getting gross and sweaty, she couldn't say it hadn't done its job.

Her drop and fall had taken her lower than she'd been before, where the leaves were bigger, the forest darker, and the air heavier.

A forest rodent swarmed its way up the trunk of a tree just a few metres ahead, only to be snapped up, quick as a flash, by a camouflaged snake.

The snake didn't even bother to kill it before it swallowed.

Ino watched it warily.

It stared back for a few long moments. Its tongue flicked at her, tasting her scent on the air.

She tensed to stand.

There was a flash of orange fur, a clash of teeth, a startled hiss.

A huge tiger buried its teeth into the snake's hide, leaking blood and spittle, and shook the snake wildly with it head. The snake jerked and stilled.

Ino swallowed.

The tiger retreated with the kill, flopping its huge furry body out long and low on a broad branch, and began ripping chunks of flesh off the snake's scaly carcass.

Ino got slowly to her feet and inched away. The tiger glanced at her and gave a throaty, threatening cough.

The forest went still and silent.

Even hideous bird-sized spider knew that sound. An atavistic terror shivered up Ino's spine.

"Nice tiger," she muttered, backing slowly away from the enormous cat. From nose to tail tip it had to be three and a half metres long.

The tiger glanced at her, once, made a warning snorting noise - "I'm going," she assured it. "Definitely leaving," - and then returned to its snaky repast.

Ino scrambled down her tree and hit the dirt in record time.

She was thrilled to be on solid ground again. There wasn't much underbrush. Since the canopy was so huge and heavy, little enough sunlight filtered down to this level, which meant that the ground was mostly carpeted by poisonous bugs, dry leaves and little else.

Ino checked her compass and took off at a jog.

She gave the tiger a wide berth.

* * *

It was sundown when Ino finally got home, where her father greeted her with raised eyebrows.

"What have you been doing?" he asked, peering at her around a sprawling, potted angel's trumpet. Its branches sagged with the weight of its hanging flowers.

Ino gave him a hard look. She was bone-tired, cut and scratched, and she'd been terrified - and now she was faced with a fair outlet for her wrath. "Training!" she snapped, and stalked off.

She needed a shower. She needed a shower _now_.

Bewildered, Inoichi muttered something about pubescent girls and went back to tending to his poisonous flowers.

* * *

Comments and reviews are very welcome. (Very welcome. Seriously. Off you go, write something in the review box. It'll make my day.)


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